House AC Line Variance

G_m_c, yes, I had not thought of changing the taps to get what you want. If I recall, however, the lowest tap is 110 volts. Would going in on that and out on 117 give you a kick up?

Benb, I have had very poor luck with ac filtering. The IsoClean system, the Walker Velocitor, and the Sound Applications are the only units I have heard that help more than they harm. My house was struck by lightening with the system on and plugged into the Sound Application. While many things were blowen out in the house my system was unaffected. I had the computer on a UPS device. It and the computer were gone. That was learning the hard way for me. Incidentally the lightening blew a hole in the gas line going to a water heater and ignited it. A day later when we had no hot water, I checked and found an open flame. Luckily it was far from any wood so our house had not burned down.

Interesting problem your friend has tbg, in my neck of the woods you have too much voltage much of the time. I see 130 volts at times. Funny coincidence, i was checking the output of my isoclean isolations transformers the other day. The wall was sending in 130+ volts. I was able to get exiting power from 119 volts up to 150 and more depending on which tap i came off of. Your friend could use one of these boxes to step his power up.

Tbg,

Sounds like you have experience with regulators. So what do they do to the sound that is poison? Have you listened to battery UPS types? And do you prefer line conditioners? Transformer-based or not?
I am in communication with the power company but the neighborhood is 75 years old and it seems like they won't be of much help.

Benb, the APS will not even approach the sound that you are getting from the Sound Application. I don't have any experience with the Thor, but other voltage regulators are sonically poison. Fortunately, my line voltage varies .2 volts from 124 over an entire week when I had a voltage recorder on the line. This is in a rapidly growing community with much demand from air conditioning. It can be done, but my city power seems more interested that for profit providers. I think your voltage is too high and probably will shorten the life of your components. I would press your provider to deal with your over voltage problem.

Not long ago I visited a friend in Nashville. In the Summer he had a maximum of 114 volts and a low of 103 volts. The sound was awful. He will not raise hell with the TVA to do something. I cannot understand why people don't raise hell if need be to get the ac they have a right to.

Thanks for the responses.
I am going to give a voltage regulation (APS 1050) sysem a try.
I love my line conditioner (Sound Application RLS) and what it does to the sound, but this may be the better solution for the large variation in voltage in my house. I just hope it sounds as good.

I have 240V AC and it varies between 220 and 255!
I bought a Thor PS10 power station and that unit shows input AC voltatage and output AC voltage on it's display. Now no matter what the input voltage, it always provides a stable 240V output. This has done the trick for me, and given me piece of mind too...maybe you could consider a similar solution.

Sola voltage regulators are very well built and priced for industry instead of audiophile silly, I've installed a lot of them over a lot of years. A quick internet search or a call to your local electrical supply house should get you some info. Monster makes a voltage regulator that should do the trick also.

Porziob, I disagree! The standard is 120v +/-5% [114v to 126v]. Just checked mine at 7:30 PM [TV & A/C running] and it's 122v...but we have a recently upgraded power grid in my area.

This is quite normal. If you are concerned or you hear audible differences then I'd suggest the APC H15.

W/ most utilities, +/- 10% is the std. Over or under, they must fix the problem. You`re w/in their tolerance. They won`t much care about the effect on your bias.

Your voltage seems a bit high. Mine varies from 116 VAC to 121 VAC depending upon the time of day and the load presented by the equipment that is running. It usually stays right around 119 VAC for the most part. I am located in Bethesda, MD just north of Washington, DC.

You should talk to your local power supply company and see if they can offer any help...

-RW-